Social Question

Assuming... If, primates had never existed, and therefor humans had never evolved from them, then what animal species would otherwise have been the most likely to evolve the level of intelligence that we currently claim to possess?

It would need a large brain case, so small animals are out. It would need agility to out-compete the other animals. It would need the ability to change its environment when the environment changes, so sea creatures are out. It would use tactics or weapons and would have a way to communicate with others of the same species. That rules out a lot.
I vote: lion or tiger.

Some of the brightest kind of birds. Actually I want to choose dolphin but they evolved in to brighter creature after they choose to permanently live at sea. The second brightest animal after human and chimp is crow not dolphin(still in debate but many believe it’s crow).

Provided they had more time to evolve, definitely my money is on dolphins. But they really need the time to evolve digits, cause those are key to further intelligence. Seeing their underwater world would be awesome!

The octopus, no question. I recall reading an article by a marine biologist who argued that octopodes would have beaten humanity to establishing a civilization except for the unhappy circumstance that fire is considerably more difficult to master underwater. Octopodes are highly intelligent, capable of abstract reasoning (they recognize themselves in a mirror, for example, and are able to quickly discern how to open screw-top lids to get at food), and have all the recognized traits of high intelligence, such as a capacity for play and the ability to communicate (biologists have known for some time that octopodes, generally thought to be solitary, often gather in caves and rapidly flash patterns of colour through their skin in what is believed to be complex communication). Octopodes are notorious tool users (often being observed using sharp stones to smash open crustacean shells, for example), and their eight tentacles are more useful than opposable thumbs.

The only two things standing in the way of octopus civilization are the difficulty with fire and their short lifespans. Evolution will probably one day find a way around both, should they manage to survive humanity. I am horrified at the use of octopodes as food, particularly since they are killed in such a gruesome and agonizing way. Because octopodes can survive for extended periods out of water, octopus fishers will shove their hand down the octopus’ throat and rip the creature inside out to kill it. Given the intelligent, playful, gently curious nature of the octopus, this seems like a terribly cruel thing to do. I certainly would never eat one.

Yes survivors indeed, but I’m not sure how much they’ve actually evolved. I believe, (not sure), but I believe that insects are considered pretty much the same as they were millions of years ago, albeit much smaller. It’s hard to imagine 4’ dragon fly’s, and 3’ cockroaches, and I’m probably wrong on the sizes, but there used to be some really big bugs in this world.

I believe the reason insects are small is due to limitations to get oxygen distributed throughout their body, based on their exoskeleton design. They don’t have a circulatory system or lungs. I think my 6th grade teacher told me that.

It is very possible that the “most intelligent” development of a species may still be (humans or no humans), end up being a Borg-like shared understanding between individual species; a “hive mind”. Some might argue humans are destined to that as well, if not already.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies If we came from insects our bodies could withstand much more physically. They did experiments where scientists sucked all the air out of a jar (a complete vacuum) with some beetles inside and than bursted the jar. The beetles still survived. Any other animal would have been killed instantly. We wouldn’t be able to handle the cold so great however. The population on this planet would be much higher as well.